here in washington, the u.s. house returns at 2:00 eastern following their weeklong thanksgiving recess. they will take up a bill expanding the bill on the manufacturing and sale of firearms on find up detectors. later this week they will attempt to modify the dodd frank financial regulation law. you can see the house alive when they begin work today at 2:00 eastern. president obama working at the white house this afternoon. he will deliver remarks about

world aids take. that, in just under half an hour, we will hear from judy relationsn u.s.-china regarding climate change policies. she is speaking at the center for american progress. that is live at 10:00 30 eastern. -- governoridate dannel malloy is in washington talking about the achievement cap in the country. on august 9, 1974, vice president ford was sworn in as president of the united states. this is the dress that mrs. ford was wearing in the swearing-in

ceremony. she was less than excited about becoming first lady, but president ford encouraged her. she said, if i am going to do this, i'm going to have fun doing this. within 10 days, she had a state dinner toceremony. she entertain king hussein of jordan. she hit the ground running as first lady. ford.st lady betty coming up, epa genome mccarthy will be talking about u.s.-china relations. until then, a recent white house policy initiative and how it is impacting the president's health care initiative.

showing the president hitting new lows on measures of job approval. what is it like to work inside the white house right now? guest: the mood is pretty grim. it has been since the rollout began and quickly started to have its flaws shown. approval ratings dropping. one of the things most concerning to the white house is the public perception of the white house's honesty is dropping. at the moment, they are taking a deep earth. they announced some improvements to the health care website. they are taking quite a bit of criticism over their negotiations with iran and the negotiations reached recently to freeze their newsgroup -- nuclear program. like many times in the white

house, they are dealing with a whole host of issues at the same time. this time is different in particular because of the problems the president is facing, of course, the deep flaw that accompanied the rollout of his signature domestic policy. here is what the poll numbers say. the average of those that are the president's approval rating at 55.6%. you can see the president's job approval since the beginning of his presidency. his approval rate being the red line. attentionresident pay to these numbers, these tracking polls that are out there? had a piece out there that said president obama favors the long game over the

culture that dominates politics of washington. does he pay attention to this? guest: he does. he certainly pays attention to approval ratings, especially given a lot of his governing philosophy and the political leverage she believes he has comes from public support. it is why he tends to rally the public outside the beltway, when he is trying to pass key legislation. it is why organizing for action exists. when enthusiasm for him goes down, he believes his political power goes down. in contrast to the last time , after thehis low first of debt ceiling showdown, there were few opportunities to regain ground. the last time was the election

year when he could make a case to defend his record. this time you do not have a moment like that way you can say give me another chance. -- dig be harder to send out of a hole like this. it is pretty easy to write off a .ame-duck resident people look for opportunities to do so in this town. you highlight another obstacle facing, digging out of perceptions. the closer we get to 2016, the more they will be fixed. that is a big challenge that this white house faces. we are speaking to scott wilson, the white house bureau chief.

we are talking about recent fores, criticism received healthcare.gov. please give us a call. the phone numbers are on the screen. of course, we will also be taking your comments on e-mail, facebook, and twitter. as folks are calling in, we want to ask you about this headline in october. talk about the inattention to detail that you see here. guest: a couple things have come up recently with the national security agency eavesdropping disclosures. he said he was not aware the united states was eavesdropping on a german chancellor's personal cell phone.

the glitches to the health care website is another that he has acknowledged he was not prepared for. on their own, these may seem relatively minor, but added up, you get the perception of a white house and a management team that is trying to do a lot of different things at the same time and not necessarily paying attention to the implementation of these major policy issues, whether national security in the case of the nsa, or whether it is his health care law, which is legacy. is it people not wanting to tell the president bad news? is he not willing to surround tell himith people who that things are wrong?

there was a lot of bad news not shared with the president. this goes back to this year, the irs inspector general's report about paying particular attention to conservative groups. that, not aware of told of that, even though senior staff knew. surroundedy, he himself by people that he knew. he did not have many contacts in washington, did not spend much time here before becoming president. circle ofady close advisers became smaller and smaller as his time or on. we are talking about congress with scott wilson, the white house chief euro spokesperson for "the washington post." we are talking about the recent

rollout of healthcare.gov, saidcism that has been about that. woodbridge, virginia. good morning, you are on with scott wilson. i want to address the issue that if you want to keep your insurance company, you can keep it. the president was speaking for the american people, not insurance companies, which does not make him a liar. he was not speaking for the insurance companies. i also wanted to address, to your guest, what are republicans doing to help this country? host: how the public perception is on some of these issues of health care law. the line that the president used frequently that

if you like your health care insurance, you can keep it. that was a way to get at the insurance,eople with the vast majority of americans, should not fear this new legislation. be thenot turn out to case. the fact of the matter is, the legislation was written in a way to weed out insurance policies that were not meeting minimum standards set by the law. knew that that was not going to be the case for every american. they thought it would be a small percentage of americans who could not keep their plants. way that wasn a not accurate, not honest. as far as what republicans are doing in terms of health care, this has been the white house response to republican criticism, which is, if they have a better idea on how to ensure americans without health insurance, bring it forward.

housee republican congress has put itself in opposition to the white house. ,hat is how it defines itself serve may not buy new laws passed. that is what they will see from there, schmidt. they have not put much forward at all in terms of how they will change the health care system. the subject of the affordable care act, secretary sebelius should have been fired yesterday. what did she have on valerie anyway? referring to white house advisor valerie jarrett. occurrede any shakeups because of the rollout of healthcare.gov? there could be. secretary sebelius is one that could move on. there probably will be some accountability at some point.

when you talk to people at the white house, their basic message is we want to get this fixed before we start finding out what happened. they are in the process now. when it is over, you might see some cabinet secretaries and senior staff move on. moving on to the longer view of president obama's eight years in office, "the national journal" has a recent headline. quotes the gallup news editor about approval ratings. where does the president stand

on this issue of trustworthiness, and if that is a bigger problem than job approval right now? the start of his administration, this president made transparency and trustworthiness an essential part of his brand. he contrasted himself from the previous administration, weapons iraq thatstruction in did not appear. he said he was not going to be that kind of president, that he would be honest. his approval ratings were low, his trustworthiness was high, and that buoyed him in times when approval ratings were low. this year, because of things like you could keep your insurance plan, the nsa taken a hugeit has blow and has been hard to get back. without credibility, you have a hard time selling a plan that

the iran nuclear freeze to a skeptical congress and to an increasingly skeptical congress. whites what worries the house more than others. host: the latest polling numbers on obama's trustworthiness. down to 46%. bill is waiting from massachusetts this morning on the line for republicans. good morning, you are on with scott wilson. i am a c-span junkie. i have two issues i want to talk about, legacy. legacy he talks about before and after he leaves office. to rule obamaing and hillary. they were trying to protect folks through consistent lies

using various people as spokespeople and also the perception that they did not need, that they were so successful, we did not have to increase any security. . also,ond issue guest: bill pointed out correctly that this was a country in libya that the united states and benghazi in particular, that the united

states put its military resources into to help and free from gaddafi. whereh its turnaround, the american ambassador and three others were killed, has to be seen as a problem. that is something that she will have to explain repeatedly if you decide to take a run for office. host: oscar right in on twitter. can we talk about his legacy midway through? tost: the white house begins look at its own legacy. the president starts to look ahead and count years and months and what does he most want to be remembered for by the time he .eaves office it is on the white house's mind.

oscar has a good point. yetannot some of his legacy but it is important to be mindful of the way that the presidency -- his remaining time in office and what he most wants to achieve. talks about what the president would site for what has kept him from advancing these goals that he sought to advance. how much is that issue of protectionism going to be part have theegacy as well, white house portrayed it? guest: white house historians will see that that was a big part. in particular it is the not of time that has been spent and political energy spent to run

fiscal issues in particular. the debt ceiling standoff, government shut down. ande are obviously symbolic the whitethe lack of house and congressional ability to get together to solve problems. also, this congress will apparently go down as the least productive in history in terms of passing new legislation. john boehner said that is fine. their primary focus is on of structuring and impeding. in their own republican words, that is a big part of what they hope is their legacy. [indiscernible] host: arkansas. good morning, faye.

caller: wondering about this insurance, are there other countries that forced the fed is -- citizens to buy insurance, and are all insurance companies banks? the banks bought up a lot of insurance companies before this went into effect. >> we are spending 45 minutes on the subject of affordable care act next, but scott wilson, if there's anything you want to say on that subject? >> there are other countries that have government programs that ensure their citizens -- insure their citizens. >> we have been talking about the president has his legacy and

some of these issues he has faced. one issue rick santorum brought up yesterday on cnn's state of union is the issue of whether president obama is competent some of these issues he has enough and whether the public sees him as competent in the wake of all of these issues. here is a bit of what rick santorum had to say. >> this feeds into the president's confidence. that is the question and -- people have. obama is front and center with what is going on in the middle east. another area. the whole group of issues now people are questioning. you talk to anybody, i talked to some people in the insurance industry this morning. they told me most of the front and may be looking good and people can go on and get responses but the information is still garbage. it is not decipherable. it is requiring them on a case- by-case basis to have somebody

go because there is ms. information, husbands labeled as we have talked about trustworthiness numbers. how do you measure confidence of the president? >> it is a huge problem because president obama has made such an issue of his administration's confidence. he called his predecessors in competent, and not so many words. he came into office and it knowledged recently he is -- he is not very ideological. that is debatable, but the confidence of getting things done is going to be what he wanted to be known for. what rick santorum is talking about is true. the backend of the health-care system, we will have to wait and

see. there is a lot of data data still coming out of it. it raises basic questions about his management style, who he is listening to, is it time for people, and his attention to implementing policies he has worked hard to present. that is clearly where his interest lies. not in the day-to-day functioning of government, but in the policies and politics. >> we showed our viewers rick santorum. talking about whether people trust the president, here is a bit of what he had to say. >> is has been a tough patch. not just health care. the shutdown affected everybody. let's fast-forward. health care working better, people signing up, hopefully no washington shutdowns. i think the president's numbers will recover and confidence will recover.

we need to push congress to do smart things to help the economy. american people are talking about all these issues except what is important to me, my job and income. that is what washington needs to focus on. american people are screaming, focus on what is important to us. >> they paint a bright picture on the horizon for the white house in terms of how things could go. how do you see that? >> we can try to turn this around, is working, are people getting insurance, are people saying yes? there are scenarios where the country starts saying, ok, it was a bumpy start but it will get better. the economy is improving. at the same time, you have a series of fiscal debates coming

up between the president and congress and those have not gone well. the president and his team see those as opportunities again to sharpen the difference between what he is trying to do for the country and what republicans and their words are impeding. that may be an opportunity for obama to retain some approval ratings, perception of competence among the public there it it is a rosy scenario and there is a lot between now and then that has to get fixed. the white house will have to rebrand in a way. >> you talk about sharpening the difference between the white house. it is the president and administration having any real relationships and friendships with members of congress e >> not many third president obama will set his former partner in illinois as an ally. nancy pelosi, they think highly of. harry reid, they think highly of.

i would not call them personal friendships. it is a fairly shallow relationship in general between the white house and even democratic leaders in congress. >> we are taking your calls and comments. we will go to minnesota on our line for democrats. caller: thank you very much. there is only one thing i can say about what has been said this morning. it is nonsense. if this man were to run for office tomorrow, he would be elected, ok? what this man is saying on tv today has been very negative. how you got your job is beyond me. >> let's not attack our guest. caller: you can smile their.

it is really funny, but our president is the best president and we have had obstructionists and everything he has done in the middle east, that is more than i can say for a lot of the republicans. we would have been at work. >> she says if the president were to run today if there were an election today, he could win. do you think that is possible? guest: it is possible. he is still popular. i think murray is crystallizing a lot of the frustration out there. if you are dealing with an obstructionist congress, how much can the president actually do? it is clear he is trying. he has proposed a number of initiatives and is working hard in the middle east. there are peace talks going on. thanks to his administration.

and secretary of state kerry. i think what the frustration that she clearly feels is prevalent among democrats in particular and among many independents who would like the government just to work at her. and see it more of a republican problem than a president obama problem. >> the obama legacy -- a question on twitter, is obama's -- guest: trade agreements are always difficult. raises questions among democrats. in particular, environmental reasons, workplace reasons, asia is known where workplace extent

workplace standards are low. he will have selling to do among democrats. he leaves a trade partner -- it is a trade policy that will open up a lot and the administration has placed a lot of emphasis on it, refocusing on asia. it is an important part of the president's is economic jet -- agenda. class kathy in virginia. good morning. you are on with scott wilson. >> good morning. my question is, our country has paid over $300 billion for a website that does not work. why is it not one word has been spoken to adjust our money being returned? anytime i have bought a product that did not work, i demanded a refund. how could this much money be gone with nobody demanding any money in return? at the very least, i feel we deserve a breakdown of where the money went. guest: i do not disagree with

the accountability of the money and it would be in the public interest to know how it was spent and why it was missed then. it is hard to say why we're not getting money back area i think what is important is making sure what has been spent is eventually turned into something working correctly. that is what is being done, and it remains to see how effective the repairs will be. >> we played a clip earlier of rick santorum talking about the fix is needed for the website, creating a competence issue for the white house. how does the white house keep the confidence issue from bleeding over to immigration or into the iran talks to other policy areas it is looking to move ahead on in the next couple of months and years? guest: on immigration, the encouraging the congress to take

up immigration, pass it, it just begins to sound like the same thing. when you have a weaker president, you are much less inclined to support what he is asking you to do. the white house position has oh is been the republicans have to see it as in their own best interest to make things right with a growing hispanic electorate, that they did very poorly the it -- poorly with in the last election. on iran, it is even more pressing. what the president is asking for now is six months to get a real agreement with iran to reduce its capacity to enrich iranian. center forw to the american progress where we have epa administrator gina mccarthy talking about climate change.

ahead of her trip to china next week. u.s.-chinae that cooperation on the environment is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, carbon pollution, for our country and the world. we are particularly excited to have her here. this is the first time administrator mccarthy has spoken here at and we are excited to have her here. president obama released the climate action plan. upon the effort and recognize its critical goals. it is vertical for the u.s. and the world that we embark on this effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prepare the united states for the impacts of climate change, and to lead this international effort to combat climate change. we believe these efforts will

ensure the u.s. grows economically, will create jobs, and will also meet the important challenge of reducing -- reduction in greenhouse gas admissions by 17% by 2020. we hope this event today highlights the importance of china as a key partner combating global chat -- key partner. combating global climate change is not something that the u.s. should tackle on its own. that is why we are excited about this u.s.-china engagement. we have been able to see firsthand that the epa is doing amazing work there on environmental production and climate change. many americans do not recognize the critical role at is already playing. everyone in china faces pollution challenges. the newspapers have shown the challenges that that country is facing.

challenges we faced in the past and have taken on thomas and it critical that china does as well. but the headlines do not always reveal, as the epa has workers working in the nation, working to advancee ngos, the challenge. i believe these efforts will come more to light as we begin the trip. my honor to welcome administrator mccarthy. she has led an impressive career in service, holding numerous positions in government, previously the administrator for pollution.ice of served as a deputy secretary for the massachusetts office of commonwealth development and undersecretary of environmental affairs. there could not be anyone better to take on this critical

mission. afterwards there will be a q&a with carol browner, a distinguished fellow, and who also held the same position in the clinton administration. we look forward to those remarks. [applause] good morning, everyone. it is great to be here. thank you for the introduction. also, thank you to my friend carol browner for taking care of the easy things and leaving me with a more complicated work. thank you for your years of service. you do tremendous work at epa. first, i want to congratulate everyone at cap. are 10 yearsyou old. congratulations on the anniversary. it is an incredible achievement to be the place where the best minds come to work and look at opportunities or how we can get together and take action on

opportunities to strengthen our country. it is great to be here. i cannot thank all of you enough for the work you are doing on issues like climate change then go to the heart of asking ourselves the question of what kind of a country, and what kind of a world, do we want to leave to our children and grandchildren? these are big issues, and i am glad to be here to talk about them. want to get to the answers and to some discussions with carol. let me keep my remarks brief. i have dedicated my life to protecting the environment. and noo greater issue greater urgency to public health and climate change. climate change is not just a public health and safety issue. i consider it to be one of the greatest economic challenges of our time as well, which is why i am really looking forward to the excitedd why i was very

in the summer when president obama spoke so eloquently and so comprehensively about the urgency to act on climate change, when he spoke at georgetown university. it was a speech that i had been hoping for, a president for many years, and i was so proud that it was our president. he showed enormous courage and enormous strength as well as he challenged us all to not just acknowledge the science of climate change, do understand that it is real and happening, but to also charge the cabinet to take immediate action. call me biased, but i believe it was his best speeches so far, although he is not done yet, i'm quite sure. climated through his action plan as well, which outlined some common sense, pragmatic steps that the epa and other agencies across the toinistration are now taking cut carbon pollution, invest in

clean energy, to help our cities and towns build in more resilient ways so that they can add depth to a changing climate and keep our communities safe, but also to prepare to be a broader and more vocal leader on the issue of climate change in international discussions. as you know, in september, epa proposed urban pollution standards for new power plants using our authority that congress gave us under the clean air act. those power plant labor --ations our proposals regulations are proposals that would impact new facilities being constructed. new would ensure any facilities from this point forward would use modern technologies that are available to reduce carbon pollution. epa will also next june be proposing new standards that will also provide significant

flexibility to the state that will effectively protect public health from carbon pollution from the existing power plants. that will be an opportunity to reduce the current levels of carbon pollution emitted by power plants and put us on a energy, cleantic energy generation and innovation. of bothut the process looking at those new power plants, and most importantly, at the existing plants, we have theucted what i think is most vigorous outreach and most comprehensive outreach program that you can imagine, well in advance of putting any pen and paper down in terms of a proposal, which is not due until next june. we held 11 public listening sessions, have been meeting with anyone who wants to talk about this. i welcome continued dialogue,

which you can send into the epa. the most important thing, we got 30,000 people who came to us, speaking their mind, and also speaking from their heart. it was a great experience for them and from the great folks at epa, who worked tirelessly on this issue and got to see firsthand and relish in the democratic process, listening to people. i want to thank the folks at epa each day. let's move on to what is next. takee going to continue to the lead in implementing the president climate action plan. we have authority to do it, we are charged with responsibility to do it, and we will meet that challenge to address the action item in the report and the plan, as well as continue to engage our international partners.

reducing carbon pollution, adapting to a changing claimant thomas and it is all about the united states playing a leadership role in international discussion. climate change is a global issue, we need global action. we will do our part and launch further discussions. i am really excited to be going back to china. the u.s. and china represent the world's largest economies, the world largest enemy -- energy consumers, and the world's largest emitters of carbon pollution. i would rather not be the largest energy consumer or the largest emitter of carbon pollution, but since we are, we are going to get together and talk. we know there is economic competition between the two nations. that is healthy. but we do share the same climate and the same level of concern about a changing climate.

i think we are well positioned to begin work together in a more concerted effort to move forward , to build on what i think of as 30 years of significant cooperation and partnership between our countries already. let me highlight the fact that one of the opportunities when i go to china is to build on the fact that epa and the ministry of environmental protection in china have had a deep and strong relationship. they know they are facing significant air quality challenges. they have known that for some time. we know that as well. or the past 15 years, we have been working with them in depth on working to address their air quality challenges. it is now very clear to china and the u.s. that action must happen, and it must happen

quickly in china. this is not just about china. it is also about air quality in the united states and other countries. emanatingllution is from china and heading into our west coast. we know mercury emitted in china goes up into the atmosphere and is redeposited in our rivers and streams, where we rely on food and recreate. we also no public outcry in the 1960s and 1950s led to significant change in the united states. we know that it led to significant laws being enacted. we know that it led to a significant increase in the infrastructure in government from local to state to national levels that allowed us to , andss that public outcry to deliver significant protections through the great works of many administrators before me, including carol browner.

china also is facing significant public outcry. they have significant challenges that they need to address. but the good news is, we have been there before. the u.s. has faced these challenges. we have faced them well. we have faced them over time. we know the technologies are available. we know what planning can do. we know there are many ways in you chew can engage your states and in china's case, provinces, to bring a state of urgency to this issue. we will be working with them to work on these air quality challenges, moving forward. established some very ambitious goals. not only for air quality, but also for climate. we believe they can learn from the lessons of the united states and to leapfrog and look at ways to address their air quality challenges, which are of

paramount importance to them now, and do it in a way that build a continue to clean energy economy. they do not have to think air pollutionut and climate. they can rather think about those issues together and develop plans that will accomplish both. our goal in making this trip to china is to continue to support them in their meeting air pollun and climate. they can rather think about their air pollution challenges. we have established, strong working relationships. we have established access already on the ground looking at technologies. we are going to be meeting not withwith the mep, but also the folks in china who deal with climate change. we are going to try to bridge that gap. just as we are a bureaucracy, they have theirs. i really want them to learn our lesson and to think about how

they can address both challenges apprehensively and creatively, in a way that continues to build a clean energy economy. not just for them, but working in concert with the u.s. and rest of the world. there are good things that we can do together and i remain very old. i will end by saying one of the reasons i am so hopeful is because i know what we have been able to accomplish in the united states. i know the types of technologies u.s. companies produce, that i will be looking at in china, that they are now using to monitor air quality in beijing, to give the people in beijing real-time information about their air quality. that is success moving forward. u.s., andccess or the that is a building block for china that one get them moving forward in leaps and bounds, which is frankly, what needs to be done.

so i do remain hopeful. that, in the united states, for every dollar we have invested in the clean air act, tohave recouped four dollars eight dollars in economic benefits. condense -- convince the chinese that our continued relationship is worth that investment, then we will all reap those benefits together. i think i should end there and thank you all for allowing me to be here. let's start the conversation and, again, congratulations to years. 10 i look forward to what you would do. you have been pretty good so far. thank you very much. [applause] welcome. it is fun being administrator, right? if it would bew

fun for eight years. that youeat thing was got to start and finish things, which is hard in a shorter tenure. i want to spend a few minutes talking about the jobs probably and then we will go to china and then some domestic. i want to remind people we are taking questions from the audience. if you could indicate your name, organization, write down your question, we will collect those and do our best to get through as many as possible. we do intend to take questions through the notecards. please write down your questions. you have been there six months now? not quite, but i take that little hiatus from government. >> we had a few in my day, too. surprisede thing that

you the most about the job? thearol, you know, i spent past four years in the air program. it was so busy there, i had never enough time to understand the breadth of work that epa does. every day i learn something new that epa does. i should never have been surprised by the breadth of work that epa does. one of the challenges we face is telling -- telling the epa story more directly. resources continue to be challenged more and more. congress continues to challenge us, especially on the house side. i really want epa to maintain its stature that it has internationally and with the american people, of being the best science agency that knows how to turn the science into

real life improvement for american families. we are not telling that story effectively. >> one of the greatest challenges i faced, and in some ways, the government shutdown help to tell the story. it allowed us to tell the story that we are the environmental cop on the beat. it is interesting that the story be told over and over. have now,llenge we most people do not see the environmental challenges the way they used to, because we have been very good at the work we have done. that does not mean that everyone is breathing clean air. it does not mean that we do not have tremendous sites being added every day. we have significant challenges with every industry sector to figure out the next level of technology improvement needs to be to reduce toxic emissions

that folks in urban and environmental justice areas are experiencing. we have climate change. it is a challenge to remind beple in a way that used to so visibly apparent to them. it is still necessary. of the airead office, you did a number of hugely important things. the mercury rule is now in place. unfortunately, we did not have an administration who shared the view of mercury as a neurotoxin. you must be thrilled that we now have that on the books and we are starting to see some closures of power plants. proud of it. everyone at epa is because it was a difficult role to get done. this transition in the energy sector that has been going on since the abundance of inexpensive natural gas -- we had to see what was happening in

the industry to understand that the time was right and that we can do this in a way that was consistent with the way in which energy will be generated. that point,clear at there were a number of old coal facilities that were essentially uncontrolled, 70 years old, no one ever anticipated that they would still be around. it made it easier and more cost beneficial to move that rule now. we knew that those facilities were not being called upon, they were not generating, they were hanging onto them and using them in some cases in spinning reserves, when you want the best and cleanest technologies available. it provided an opportunity for us to set a reasonable standard. the way it has played out, because of the changes in the energy market, provided a decision point that would

provide much more reductions than we ever would require under that rule. >> this is one of the interesting stories of the history of the epa, regulation focused on a public health issue , man has the impact. once embraced, it has the impact of stimulating solutions and ingenuity which were hard to imagine in the first instance. now there is another fuel that has become available, but you start to see the opportunities of regulation. probably also mention that renewables are also getting much more mature, getting to be integrated much more effectively into the energy market as well. since the beginning of this administration come the we have doubled the amount of electricity generated from renewables. it has been a great opportunity to have a clean natural gas cycle, to build it into the energy structure -- infrastructure in a way that makes sense.

is a wonderful opportunity from a public health and epa perspective to be able to align with that and get our public health improvements that the clean air act anticipated. >> you talk about the president's climate action plan. one thing that does not get a lot of attention and something that i was impressed with as a former administrator, you got sort of an insurance policy. the president signed a memorandum of understanding. i never had president clinton telling me to do something in advance. i always hard to argue why i was doing something and then i have to argue how much i was doing. to argue about

whether or not you will be setting standards on carbon emissions. pretty exciting stuff to have this kind of memo their backing you up. >> maybe you had a tougher row to hoe then i will have. my job will be to deliver what the president has told us he will deliver. for me, it is a remarkable opportunity. the president signed a memorandum ofi could not have sy other way that had me better positioned at epa to get done the things that we think has been essentially necessary for this country for a long time. it is great to have your boss smarter than you. leading the way. one of the things we have in common, we both ran state agencies. part of how the carbon standards will play out is the states will .ave to step up we could have this entire meeting in acronyms, so we will spare the audience that. state implementation plans. how do you see that the unfolding? the epa is at the crux of this. as a former state agency head, i know that is not always easy to do at the state level. >> it is not.

which is one of the reasons why we have started such a robust process. it is focused in the region that have relationships with all the states. we are seeing engagement from the states, right out of the gate on this issue. they are taking it enormously seriously. that is one of the values of the president going out in leading . front and speaking with such definition on this issue. there is federal leadership that has been necessary, and so we are engaging the state from the get go. essentially to do is epa has to look at establishing guidelines that the states then turnaround and develop plans that are reasonable and appropriate for them. maintaining the aggressiveness we are looking for for carbon reductions. i have seen the states engaged on this issue, carol. flexibleing to be very

in the implementation of the standard. the questions we are asking in the comments is, how do we better than standard, looking at facility by facility? how far can we go and still be legally solid with the rules so that it holds up when it is inevitably challenged? but also do it in a way that get more reductions in carbon at lower cost than they might have done in a more traditional way. we are going to open that up and give lots of opportunities for states to align themselves regionally. one of the things that i did in connecticut was the regional greenhouse gas initiative. new england states and mid- atlantic states get more reducts in carbon at lower cost than they might have done in a more traditional way. we are going to open that up and give lots of opportunities for states to align themselves regionally. one of the things that i did in connecticut was the regional greenhouse gas initiative.

new england states and mid- atlantic states, it was exciting. it was an opportunity to develop significant funding for energy low,iency, to keep demand and to deliver real cost savings to consumers. at the same time, it kept the lights on and reduced carbon significantly. those are the kinds of things -- california did this with ab 32. the states are the leaders. i do not need epa to tell them what to do. anded epa to set the charge allow them to be doing the things and building on the successes that we have already had, and to broaden that success way beyond the coastline and get -- make sure it makes sense for every state. moment toe can take a make sure the audience understands the process. it is fascinating, the degree to which the president memorandum makes sure that this is all buttoned up under this president , which is no small task. you will propose for existing power plant in june. >> we will complete the year after that. >> both new and existing? >> that is to be decided.

there are some statutory constraints. on the new plant facilities, it sends a long-term signal. sources, wethe new rely heavily on carbon capture and sequestration to establish a cold standard. that is what is being invested in now. there is no rush to complete this. we want as much consideration as we can. be thellenge will existing. you put it out, and then the states have to come in with a plan one year from when we finalize -- >> the hope is finalizing in june 2015. >> correct. >> then they come back to review them. >> then we have to approve them. the state plans themselves have to have the infrastructure in place to achieve the standards. so it is not a, i plan to do this. this is, what we are doing and

what we have done. at the table now. they seem to be positively engaged. seems to be positively engaged and we will work with them and hopefully they will find ways of working together. will do exactly what we did with the mercury rule. it will set a reasonable standard and then doubled down on it. >> right. it is exciting. if the state does not write a plan, what happens? >> than the federal government takes over and writes the plan ourselves and we do a federal plan, done by rulemaking. >> one of the things, i don't only -- i do not know if it is true in this, because there are a lot of sections and i had great fun for eight years, and had a full run at it, and you are now able to use it to deal with the greatest threat we have

ever faced, the threat of climate change, but the way i used to think in the sections i dealt with, in some ways, congress was very wise and gave states more options for how to achieve reductions than the fed -- is that a fair way to think about it, that they have -- >> it is why we are having this dialogue, to send a clear signal that we really want the states to step up and develop the plan. it is not the intent of the federal government to take over their duties, but if they do not perform as they are required to, we will be forced to do that. we will do the best we can, but nobody would be better to design this in a way that made sense for their own consumers and energy mix than the states themselves. >> so, step back for a second.

you complete all of this work and have done cars and trucks. we are already seeing the benefits of the fuel efficiency standards, greenhouse gas standards, that the obama staff did with you. i was honored to be a part of that. if you buy a car today, it is more efficient. we are seeing the benefits of that. you have cars and trucks and these power plants. 40 years from now, what does it look like e if -- we will still be around 40 years? the nursing home, but -- >> i am trying to think of how much has changed in the past 40 years, just about everything. i think what we are trying to is reallyallenge long-term to look at how you move away from fossil energy. that is really the long-term challenge. tool isly, epa's related to pollution. it is a lot easier for me to get

our hands around. hopefully, in the future, you will see opportunities for renewables and strategies. you are already seeing very different patterns of living today than we ever had before. i think china is a reflection of that. you are seeing the middle class loom in china and with that, urban dwelling is happening. one of the reasons why the administration got together and is developing joint grant programs to work with communities is because we recognize that even bringing energy and environment together is not enough. you have to look at transportation and housing. it is a whole different way of looking at how you make the world more sustainable and live within the natural resources available to us. i think you will see very different technologies,. i think it will be a really interesting life for my

children. >> china, let's talk about your upcoming trip. muhtar kent your opening anti-ts about emerging pollution movement. it has some similarities to what happened here in the u.s., if you go back to the 1960's and 1970's, and in response to these demonstrations, particularly the middle class saying, enough is enough, we do not want the river on fire and the pollution so dense we cannot see. things i was struck by were the recent reports about the u.s. embassies monitoring equipment. to right to know is right know. it does not matter what language it is an. people want to know. maybe you could talk a little bit about how information is helping to fuel this movement and ultimately the government changes. >> i went to beijing a few years ago, right after some head

reported thead installation of a monitor on u.s. still -- u.s. soil in beijing at the embassy. we did it for the purpose of informing the embassy employees because people were worried about sending their kids to school. should they go out to play? how should they change behavior to ensure the kids were sufficiently protected? the air quality was getting worse. as a result, there were concerns because the information from the monitors was being treated. to be understood the information was available and the general public in beijing started accessing the information. it did not exactly coincide with some information being collected from individual monitors in the city. there was a lot of concern and, it was very

interesting. the results of is does -- the result of it was i think, that china, and certainly -- they began to get very engaged in how they begin to monitor in real- time and begin to give people information. a motivating force, as well as a significant opportunity to look at whether they have the governmental structures in place to be able to address this, and do they know what the monitoring technology should be, and it opened up a lot of opportunities , and the community very strong in supporting work to figure out how to align together and share technical as well as legal information. you who do not follow this, these are tiny ,icroscopic oligo -- particles you cannot cough or spit them out. they can lead to significant

numbers of premature deaths in older americans. let me ask you a question. source?the greatest i assume it is the burning of all fossil fuel or diesel. >> particularly coal burning. china is faced with the challenge of having 1.3 billion people. 160 cities larger than one million people. the vicinityere in of three quarters were 80% of their fossil fuel burning, is cold. at power plants as well as in industry. they are significant producers of steel and other sectors the u.s. no longer has, robust manufacturing in. they also have an abundance of coal, household cook stoves.

and heating units, in those cities, which contribute significant amounts of pollution. the challenge is broad and deep in terms of what they will do with cities. our annual standard -- daily centered, 35 micrograms per cubic meter. they have registered as high as nine -- 900. goals are now to get down to the similar levels which the u.s. indicate need to be phased down. the challenge is enormous and it is not just about power plants. it is about the industries and using as many creative mechanisms as they can, learning from our experience about how to get there. there seemse issues to have been some progress on in terms of our dialogue with china

is around the hfc. i am curious about the other, greenhouse gas pollutants, whether it is methane or greenhouse. do you see it is associated with the cook stoves -- do you see opportunities there? >> we do. we are exploring those. one of the reasons to get together is to look at what we course fornd set a the next couple years. we have been working with china on a range of things. carbon, methane, as well as other traditional pollutants and co2. they have established aggressive standards for themselves on the co2. we have been working with them in the global methane initiative. they have been very active in the development of methane strategies for coal mines and agriculture, ways in

which we can reduce our short- lived -- the president as well as the chairman have also signed hfc's using the protocol. it is a long way from being done, but it is a good first step commitment. it is extremely important. those hfc's are very intense in terms of their global warming potential. they are the one source continuing to escalate. are basically substitutes for ozone depleting substances. we need to get all countries, including india also working in china and the u.s. to tackle the issue. we are looking at diesel. pollution in beijing in particular is diesel cars and diesel vehicles. multiple sources. the diesel now is 150.

maybe more. maybe more. >> what are we out -- at now? >> 15 going down. we are looking at opportunities for clean fuels. one of the things i am attending is an international conference committed to moving toward cleaner diesel. enginelooking at standards and marine and heavy vehicles. there are opportunities -- they are doing regional planning. they are doing those plans and releasing them publicly. them in a bunch of different areas like aging and shanghai, but also doing them in city clusters. there is tremendous opportunity through that effort to start

building the kind of infrastructure the u.s. had to look at our inventory, look at where the pollution is coming from, look at the opportunities and strategies. i am excited about that, and nobody else's, but we know they are significant building blocks. class a couple of questions on china and then i will go back to domestic issues. one of the questions is nuclear energy. what do you see? is that an opportunity in china? what is your sense? they have a lot of people in need a lot of energy. >> they have certainly invested in nuclear. i do not have a complete answer stopsdo know one of the making in shanghai, one of the most environmentally progressive cities in china. it will be exciting. i will get to see a lot of fun and feel -- energy-efficient skyscrapers and things like that. new had a proposal for a

nuclear facility that has become very controversial. fukushima. it is really unclear what the dynamic will be in asia as well as europe about the prospect moving forward. >> the nuclear question has become collocated. as someone who was once not inclined, it is hard to have my position on climate and not be inclined. it is a clean source of energy. >> constructed in the u.s.. >> how important is china to a 2015 international agreement? >> we can maybe broaden this more. one of the things you hear frequently in congress is, why should we do something when the chinese are not doing anything? when india is not doing anything? when the development -- developed world is not doing anything? >> that was brought up for the and -- with the endangerment finding. >> the scientific finding epa

had to make the ford could start regulations. a scientific finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, and that then leads you to have to regulate the pollutants that is dangerous, in this case, greenhouse gases. >> it has always been a question. music isance and the playing and somebody has to take the first step. i think we have been very clear all along this is a global answer that needs global solutions. we have a responsibility and we will meet that. world, the two15 largest emitters of greenhouse gases need to be at the table. it is extremely important that china be with us and be aggressive and be supportive of establishing some goals we can all be proud of. >> let me move back to domestic issues. for those few who cannot see in

the back, we have a group of people in very bright colored t- shirts in the front row here. which, if you would move your hand, i can read the whole thing. -- no one is going to ask you to tell us what will happen. there is a process and it is important. can you explain the process a little bit? there has been a fair amount of confusion about the process. >> this tells us the keystone pipeline -- the process is where this is a pipeline that crosses the border into canada, it is a process -- project being led by the department of state, who does the environmental impact statement. they have produced an impact statement draft, as well as a revised traffic. epa's role in that is to comment on the environmental impact statement -- >> the comment on the state

department draft. >> that is right. and make sure we raise issues related to environmental impacts associated with the project. right now, my understanding is we have been actively engaged with them in responding to those comments and are looking forward to commenting again when we approach the final. >> what happens is state takes all the comments, digest them, makes something public, let the outside world comment, and then takes that back in? >> epa's generally -- it is a comment process. the important thing for epa is we just want them to get the analyst -- analytics right. the state wants to. we have done this before and commented on these and we are having a good dialogue. the best thing is we are being asked to do what we always do and no more and no less.

it has been a great process for us, one that has been very active. wife lets talk a little bit about natural gas. shale gas. epa has some responsibility for but doesthe safety, not have oversight responsibility for fracking. it is being left to the states. a former state regulator, i can see some of the positives, but also understand shortcomings. it would require congress to change that. epa had the authority, the bush cheney administration stripped the authority -- do you see a time when the authority could be reinstated? do you see the actual regulations staying at the state level? >> let me narrow the question for those who are not as

familiar as you and i are about this. we still regulate diesel. .sed in fracking >> explained people how diesel is used. >> it is use it as a fracking fluid. >> we should expand what fracking is. we can back this way up. >> fracking is basically being used to open up cracks or fissures. you do that at high pressure putting in solutions that will open up cracks and hold them to becomerder for gas available for extraction. for the most part, it is a significant amount of water with that goes highid pressure into shale. as a result of the emissions, which include methane, come up during the time, well completion, which could be

a three or 10 day time so it has air emissions and then there is also the water fluid that gets returned, that needs to be stored and exposed of appropriately. we still retain the right and responsibility to take a look at the volatile organic compounds. air emissions. we have issued rules that look completions,green and producing the oc's by by getting methane the well drilling process and capturing and reusing that. that is -- that has moved to forward -- move forward. process whereoing we have a good handle on technology and authority. what you're really were -- referring to is basically the water quality challenges, which comes from making sure wells are

properly constructed so that when the insertion of hydrofluoric -- fluid is done -- fluid.lak >> you know what i mean. it actually does not impact drinking water and it actually goes, most of the hydro- fracturing is done significant miles on the ground horizontally. for us and thege states to understand how to ensure that wells are being properly constructed. that drinking water is being protected, that we understand what is going in the ground. there are not always background samples done before and after for us to ensure there is no pollution contribution. it is a significant challenge and one that states are trying to get a handle on.

they are beginning to be more aggressive in state regulation even in states you would not think would be aggressive but our. colorado and wyoming have already regulated and they are regulating more as a result of concern. pennsylvania has issued regulations. there are a number of them. we are trying to support the states in this effort, knowing our authority is limited but also recognizing that developing some kind of uniform standard is very difficult given different geology's and uses of water, different aquifers. if we can support the states in this effort, we want to. one of the major ways we're doing that is a significant research project. our office of research and development has 18 different studies ongoing. one of the most robust and transparent process that we have ever gone through four. view. we are polling those 18 studies together, working with some of

the industries that will work with us to understand what is going on in the field, what the water quality challenges are, what the potential impacts are on water quality, and how best to address those. we are trying our best to support the states in the interim and develop the kind of science always necessary. >> it is hard for individual states to do that. if we had been sitting here five years ago, we would have been stocking -- talking about the need to import natural gas. it is a game change. i have beenhings thinking about and a lot of other people are thinking about, how does this huge uptick in the amount of available natural gas, we are seeing it now in transportation and maybe we will see it in the long haul. what does it mean for the entire

transition towards clean energy? you spoke so eloquently about that earlier. are we building an infrastructure in the same way -- a colde infrastructure. ended up laughing 50 or 60 years. wayou think there is in any the natural gas infrastructure will have impacts on further growth in desk and really robust growth in the renewables efficiency? >> it will all become a piece of it. one of the challenges i think we pipelineg is infrastructure on natural gas. many people have raised this issue. -- i think there is a need for investment -- methane is the major league

which from pipelines that are in the distribution system, because when you do them oil and gas drilling operation, the gas is not clean but it gets the larger pipelines -- what you're seeing is larger methane gas, which is money floating up. there are opportunities for this to be an economically beneficial conversation to have with investors and with the industry itself. but it will be part of, i think, a larger vision for how this country will integrate its renewables and gas infrastructure, with what we know to be continued reliance on coal. know the transition is going to be a long one. but it is one where, right now, my job is not to did they energy markets or energy futures. it is to get pollution. the pollution i am looking at is

traditional glutens, as well as carbon. natural gas being abundant has been a game changer in our ability to really move forward thatpollution reductions have been very hard to get our arms around for many decades. >> we are about out of time. i want to ask one last question. resiliency.nd three years ago, i refused to use the words. my basic view is we needed to reduce the omissions and start talking about adaptation and resiliency was in some ways to give up. the reality is we have to talk about it now. epa probably -- does not have a regulatory arm on this one, but can you talk a little bit -- you come from a part of the country, you probably see impacts probably earlier than other parts. >> it is funny i was where you in terms of wanting

to focus on mitigation first. knowieve adaptation, and i the president does, is anonymously important to address. it is an immediate safety issue. dash it is -- it is an enormous economic think. of responses to large disasters what's 100 $20 billion nobody planned for. it is a lot of off budget planning to have to accommodate. one of the things i have come to realize is that we know climate change is real. the science is there. think if youy start working on adaptation and resilience issues, community by community, with mayors that are being really aggressive on these issues, it not only makes climate, live for people, in a way our lofty destruction of science in china does not make it, for communities across the

u.s., and it also brings to light the fact the actions you need to take to address climate can be important step in stones for local economies, for job issues also for water that have been so plaguing us, about the ling infrastructure of where we wastewater, cannot always just support that from a public health funding situation, it needs to be invested in by the private and public sector at every level. there is opportunities for green infrastructure, which we know science is telling us to get away from the big types and keep water local, make your cities more beautiful, that is the best solution to the environment. i want -- i would have given my left arm to make that speech 20 years ago. i now have a place to make it. we will be shouting all over the

place about climate resilience. it is important to make climate, live -- client, -- climate come alive. >> i feel like i am coming back to water because i think when you think about particularly resiliency and adaptation, the to really think about water and think about it in some smart ways. nature is good. it will help itself if we just get out of the way and let it. one of the greatest proposals i saw, i do not think it worked out as well as one might've hoped, was mayor bloomberg's offer to help relocate people out of the floodplains. the floods come, nature can absorb it and you can have other parts. we will see a lot of those sorts of efforts. it is at the local level. what can the mayor and local community do.

adaptation and resiliency is the opposite side of the same coin. things are going to change and resiliency is how quickly can you respond and recover from an impact. part of that is, have you adapted? >> we are working with the conference of mayors pretty closely. you know mayors. they are lawyers. they do not have the luxury of being insulated from their constituents. washington sit in and not be fully accountable to making change when change is needed. they have 1200 mayors that of already signed the climate pledge its best pledges. they are mayors -- climate pledges. --se are not public service servants. they are mayors. to figure out how we support that effort and get actions moving. i know people across the

administration are really invested in working together on the adaptation issue, because it is pretty heartbreaking when you we the kinds of disasters just keep lining up week after week after week. we need to face it together as a community.mmunity by >> final question. are you optimistic we will get this right? >> very optimistic that we will do absolutely everything in our power to do that. i have leadership at our highest levels to do this. i have people in the agency who you know, who are the most talented, dedicated bunch of people. we will not do it in a vacuum. we will bring the public along will have the public drive our decisions the way it should be in a democracy. i am pretty pumped. >> it has been wonderful to have you here at the center for american progress. we wish you well on your trip. we wish you well in your

domestic journey to put in place strong requirements to reduce carbon pollution. thank you for your public solution -- public service. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] please depart in any of the side or back doors. thank you. >> gina mccarthy will be heading to china later this week and will meet with the country classes officials about confronting air pollution and other environmental concerns. also, vice president joe biden has embarked on a weeklong trip, focusing on his mission of trade and human rights issues, eight days after china passes unilaterally impose flight -- in an area designated as

international airspace. president nobody in -- resident biden -- back here in washington, president obama will deliver remarks in observation of world eastern. set for 1:20 we will have that live for you here on c-span. the house returns today following the thanksgiving recess. reese speeches. at 5:00, bills extending the ban on the manufacture and sale of firearms. later this week, house lawmakers will attempt to modify the dodd frank financial regulations law. the change would exempt certain private equity fund advisors. see the house live when they begin today at 2:00 for speeches. >> on august 9, 1974, vice president ford was sworn in as president of the united states. mrs. ford wasess

wearing at the swearing in ceremony at the white house. she was less than excited about butming first lady, president ford encouraged her, saying, we can do this. she resolved that if she is going to do it, she will have fun doing it. the fund for her started almost immediately. within 10 days, she had a dinner to entertain king of jordan. it was something she had to prepare for as her role of first lady and she hit the ground running. >> first lady betty ford tonight at 9:00 eastern live on c-span and c-span three. also, on c-span radio and c- span.org. >> if you are a middle school or high school student, c-span wants to know what is the most important issue congress should address next year. make a five-minute to seven minute video and be sure to include c-span programming for your chance to win the grand prize of $5,000. 100 -- $100 total prizes.

get the info i student cam.org. reminder daniel malloy is to address one of the largest education achievement gaps in the country. you can see live on our companion network. entrepreneurs in the financial and banking industry recently took are in a discussion about the future of money transactions and traditional banking structure. this event was part of the 2013 chicago ideas week. gentlemen, please welcome the founder of the online financial network tasty trade. [applause] >> i get to look at a picture of me -- of myself. they said you're coming out after vog.

i said, what is that? they said, voice of god. this is a huge discovery. it is cool. how are you? thank you for coming out today. it is going to be an incredible show. we have five amazing speakers, interesting people, and i think you will really enjoy it. it is all about the benjamin's. just giving the last couple of people a few seconds to come in. i have been in the chicago money world for a pretty long time, almost 33 years. think -- i built think or swim, and now building a financial media company. i'm excited to be here. i have been on the road for 13 years, doing talks about financial engagement opportunity and now, i am,

talking about the benjamin's. it is kind of cool. never talked about money before. i'm trying to keep it light. i know everyone wants to have fun today. thank you for coming out. it is an amazing lineup. some people i worked with and some people i do not know, it is an incredible assortment. it.pe you enjoy i thought i would start off with a fun story. when brad called me up and said, would you like to speak at chicago ideas week, i was bitch never them because i had done it before because it was the first time i was ever asked. i said, what is the topic and they said, it is all about the benjamin. i said that sounds interesting and i'm not sure what i am talking about but i will figure it out. they said you have a grand total of five minutes. i said cool, because my average speeches about one hour and 45 minutes. i was figuring how i would

squeeze that into five minutes. that is a tough one. i will tell you a story. just keep you fun and light, we will get into the whole discussion. a couple of ways ago, i am getting on a flight. we do eight hours of live programming a day. i do five hours of speaking on the internet every day along with live shows around the country every weekend. i hop on the plane to go out to arizona. i have a show and there are a thousand people there and i have been working since about 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning that friday morning. i get on a plane heading to arizona. it is probably 6:00 in the afternoon.

i had the aisle seat and he had the window seat. he gets up and wasn't me and -- looks at me and says -- i thought maybe i could do something for you. i think he thinks he can buy the aisle seat from me. i learned later he had been traveling for a long time. he takes out his wallet and looks at me and says, it is all about the benjamin. this is right after i had gotten to the fear. it is all about the entrance. i am like, this cannot be happening. this will not be the, -- topic of mike death of my conversation. the first thing he does is he his wallet is full of

money but not all american money. multiple countries. he pulls out a $20 bill. i have been trading since -- since 1980. this is the meeting i am kind of used to negotiations. the $20 bill. the whole line is behind me on the plane. hardfairly wide and it is to stay by me. i look at this and he pulled out a 20 and i go, no. he pulls out a 50 and i say no. he says, what will it take cap to weird and too quick that appeared i said, listen, you do not have enough money. he looks at me and says i do not? he says i -- i say you do not. he looked at me and goes, he moves over in the seat. the funny thing about this is, as we are doing that, i sit down and this is one of the flights

with directv. we look at the monitor. it has cnbc playing and i'm building a network to compete with that. it is my biggest nightmare. i'm actually drunk guy who flew over from korea. -- i am next to a drunken guy from korea who has been on for 24 hours. he looked at me and asked what do i do? the funny thing is, we created a show about finance and we gave it to them. the show was on and it is sponsored by sink or swim. i said i work for them even though i do not anymore. he looks at me and goes, that is cool. my bag says sink or swim. he goes on. he is trying to talk to me but i am ignoring him. he said, i cannot believe you do not take the money. he keeps saying, benjamin,

benjamin. we are sitting there and he is getting antsy. the plane starts to taxi. he started googling me. he shows me his ipad. he said, you prick. i know why you did not take the money. he has a picture of me. he waves down the flight attendant. he has to go to the bathroom. he's threatening to go to the bathroom. all three came. they push a button. they look at me and say, keep your friend in a line. [laughter] or we are going to tell the pilot to go back to the gate. i said i do not know this guy. this guy is smart. he said, we worked together at sink or swim. we have been friends for x number of years. they said we do not care what you are up to. he looked at me and said, you should have taken the benjamin. [applause]

that flight got diverted. when we finally landed, he said you are a good dude. we have an amazing show. enjoy it and we will be back and forth. it will be great. thank you. [applause] coming up next, we have adam --

are you there? adam erlebacher. he is from a company called simple.com and they are changing the world of online banking to do it yourself banking. [applause] >> i work at a company called simple and i'm excited to be here. i am going to talk a little bit about what we are doing at simple. and hopefully leave you with food for thought. how many folks are familiar with simple? wow. any customers? all right. cool. for those who do not know much about simple, let me give you a little background. it replaces your bank with a smarter way. when you sign up for simple, you

get a card in the mail. this card is attached to an account that is fdic insured. what is different is when you swipe your card, we automatically reorganize all of your transactions in real-time. you can set aside money for things like your cell phone bill or rent or groceries. we show you this number we call safe to spend which is how much money you can safely spend without hurting yourself tomorrow. we spent a lot of time and think about customer experience. try to do things differently and try to make every interaction -- when you sign up, you get in the mail and it's normally a card, it comes in an envelope and you open it up and your card is attached to a white piece of paper with gum and glue.

you take it out and you play with it. the rest is horrific. we wanted to do something differently. we have a card carrier that snaps into and have become say minimal wallet. we operate in the banking and payments industry which is really, really complicated. it is quite a mess. in order for us to provide the customer experience that we want to provide, you have to rip out lots of the technology that was there before us. the legacy stuff to rip out. to get us the data that we need

to build the customer experience that we want to offer. the reason why we do this is because every single year, there are three things that top the new york -- new year's resolution. people want to save more and spend less and pay off debt. the big challenge specifically in this country is that the banks fundamentally make money by keeping customers confused. i'm not trying to be overly controversial. maybe a little bit. when the bank's incentives is to make money from overdraft fee and they actually make over 50%, their interest are not aligned with yours. when it comes time to get advice or time to have clean interfaces that allow you to understand how much money you have, it is the bank incentive to charging the

overdraft fee -- there's a mismatch of incentives. even if you go outside of your bank to try and find a budgeting tool, it is not the best experience either. there are a few reasons. the first is, they rely on third-party data sources. they do not have access to the underlying data. they get it from aggregators that only provide prefilled data for every transaction you make. normally, they will get merchant names and the amount. with that, they have to figure out, how to categorize this transaction? was it the pharmacy transaction, restaurant? merchant names have lots of junk that gets sent on the wire. i have to figure out if it's a

coffee shop next door or a target and there are usually lots of junk. it is not really their fault because that's the data they get. you have to go back with all your transactions and recategorize. if you ever use any of the tool you are from million. the other thing is they are not real-time. if you are swiping and might have a rent payment coming out, these tools are not good at showing how much money you have. if you are going to the store and if i have money to spend, you do not really know. lastly, it does not solve the underlying problem of banking incentives. they are running on top of that bank experience.

how did things get so screwed up? if you look at the payment network, there are lots and lots of different layers. at the core of it, some really old payment technology that got it working well and do not break but not the most innovative things. when you strip everything down to the actual metal, money only moves in three ways. it is not like paypal or other innovative services. there are three of them. operated by the federal reserve. it's called fedwire which is real-time service. a large dollar amount and if i send $100 to you, you can send

$120 and that full amount is processed. it is a bank to bank network. the national settlement service, also ran by the federal reserve. if i owe you $100 and you owe $120, only the $20 gets sent. they wait for a period of time before they process all of the transactions. it is not real-time and for larger dollar settlements. typically credit card transactions and atm is settled. lastly is chips. if you were around in the 1980's, the most stylish and exciting. it is actually the clearinghouse

interbank payment service system. this one is a private network and not to the federal reserve. it is run by and operated by the banks. the problem with all of these services is that while they work really, really well, they were not architected to support millions of transactions going between individuals. for the most part, they are not real-time. most of the banks that have built technology on top of these networks because the underlying networks were not looking about real-time either. the real-time was not a big deal until mobile devices came around when you go pull it out of your pocket, it estimates how much money you have and transact. now that is something we all want to do and we are handicapped by the old technology that underlies the

systems. if you think about your bank experience today, and even earlier, you would walk into the branch. and be able to talk to a teller to get your questions answered. it was not so much of a problem back then, it was a teller mediated experience. the teller you can talk and can help you and interpret what you needs are by going to the belly of the core of the systems that the bank offered. that became more and more difficult as banks merged. a huge wave of deregulation and a lot of banks merged. you have a few really large banks and 7000 smaller banks right now. because that merger wave, a lot of the technology had to get integrated. it was a difficult thing to have two screens in front of the teller showing one customer from this bank and one from that bank.

they can mediate. when the internet came around, they had to integrate the systems and exposed this crusty old legacy data directly to the customers. that customer was looking at the nastiness with the product of all of these mergers and old technologies. they built a boat but now the boat that they built -- that is really, really hard. this quote that evan williams said at the xoxo conference, "it is a giant machine to the people what they want." it resonated with me. when you think about the banking, the banking world is not designed with that in mind right now. people want to pay off debts,

they do not have the tools that they need today. this is just something that gets sent to you every single month. this is insanity to me. maybe you guys are way more i financially responsible that me. this drove me insane. the first thing says note. to make sure your register is up to date. there's an extra space between additions. [laughter] it is so careless and they cannot get this column of dollars lined up.

then, they give you -- step two. it is like filling out an irs form. why does it have to be this hard? computers are really good at adding and subtracting and that sort of thing. at simple, how do we improve this experience? we want to start with the customer. what do they want? once you kind of figure that out, the question is, what is the data that we need so that we can build the experience for the customer? what is the required architecture so we can get the data out? like i was saying in the opening, we have to rip out a whole lot of stuff. when you rip out a bunch of stuff, you get to the underlying as exciting and the data you need to build something really cool. this is a screenshot of our web experience. we built this with data we are getting directly from our

processors. we get the standard feed which gives us 30 different fields. with that, the merchant name, the timestamp, the code whether a restaurant or whatnot, that is problematic and we have to clean that. we code all of the transactions by adding more data onto the data we are getting across the wire. this is just about the experience. we want to make sure customers can engage with their finances and get immediate answers without pulling out an excel spreadsheet or spending hours a day. we have a search feature. it actually works and you can search and it returns useful information. we store all of customers'

transaction data. it is cheap. it fits in the cloud. banks never thought of this. i am going to search for something. i will search for -- search for dinners. dinners. how do we know it is dinner? we are getting all this great data. if it was between the hours of 6 p.m. and 2:00 a.m. a.m., it was probably dinner. we can show you how much money you spent. if you want to see it on a chart, we can show it to you and you can see what your spending patterns look like. maybe you are spending too much at mcdonald's. we are giving the data to form your decision-making. you can make those trade-offs and understand what they look like. you can get fancier.

how much did i spend on dinner this year? we understand the search and we will show you what you are spending. money drop is another feature we recently announced. it is not yet available. it allows you to transfer money to a friend. it's a lot like cash. take your thumb and transfer the money. you drop money on their face. [laughter] it is like the most fun you'll ever have paying somebody back. that is really what i wanted to share with you today about simple. i would just say that if you're looking at an industry that is really complicated, that is

where the opportunity lies. health care, finance, banking, these are complex industries and are screaming out for help. if i could leave you with one thing, seek out the complexity and simplify it. [applause] >> all right. i'm not very good at listening to other people. i am used to talking. it is kind of weird. next up is alex mittal. let's go. this will be fun. from the funders club. how are you? >> no more plane stories. >> i met him for the first time. we had a chat and it was good.

>> we are the world's first venture on my capital firm. i saw some common themes with our last speaker in the sense that we were taken on industry that hasn't changed in decades. any founders in the audience who have raised capital before? was it an enjoyable process? [laughter] it is incredible, but the entire financial underpinnings of growth in the innovation economy is decades old. we realize that. we have set out to say what would venture investing look like if they were invented in 2013 if it was approached from a user experience point of view? what do people really want? how do we make there be less friction in this experience? >> i have started a couple of companies in 30 years. we do not know what raising capital was all about. we had no idea that they're supposed to be a process